Cat Tail Computer Screen Cleaning

Above: Trout the cat. Yes, Trout is her name.

NEW for the Holidays! Cat-tail computer screen washer! It's safe, it frees up your valuable time and her breath smells like tuna. Hey, if you act now, we throw in the laser eyes absolutely for free!

Related: The cats show us "The Right Way to Sleep:"

An instructional series of photos featuring Sam (B&W), Rufus (orange) and Trout (tiger) demonstrating the correct ways to do things.

Today's lesson: the right way and wrong way for a cat to sleep.

Right way: Sam


Right way: Rufus


Wrong way!


I have no idea how Trout the cat can sleep like this, but it's obviously wrong, wrong, wrong.

This has part of an informative series of cat-related blog entries. Thank you for your kind attention.

Related: Introducing Trout.

Rufus is Recovering

Above: Rufus still has a bit more of the fighter in him than formerly believed.

Rufus the cat, who had a serious dental operation yesterday, is doing fine.

"You didn't tell us that Rufus has a dark side," the vet said, showing me a puncture wound on his hand.

Even when groggy, Rufus was able to injure a couple of people. He's an ex-stray cat from Red Hook, Brooklyn, don'tcha know! You can take the stray outta Red Hook, but you can't take the Red Hook .... well, you know the rest!



Rufus, the lover, in repose.

Cat on the Keyboard

Warm Rufus, bathed in the morning sun coming through my studio's venetian blinds.

Normal blogging to proceed once the cat moves ....

The Great Ham Caper

My wife, Stacy, wrote a poem way back in Christmas 2006. The poem is about us and our cats, Rufus and Sam.

Stacy's poem got a lot of very nice emails, and I've rerun annually it since then. Hard to believe that since then we've moved and found a stray kitten at the milk farm up the road (or, rather, SHE adopted US) and then we rescued another stray just last month.

For auld lang syne, here is the poem again:


The Great Ham Caper
Words by Stacy Lynch
Pictures by Mike Lynch

’Twas the week before Christmas
When Rufus and Sam
Hatched a devious scheme
To make off with the ham!

The ham that would grace
The holiday table!
Roo was the brains.
Sam, wiry and able.


They devised a plan
Of Goldbergian proportions
With pulleys and weights
And kitty contortions.

And on Christmas day
They’d eat until stuffed
(The very idea
Made their tails slightly puffed!)

’Til then, they’d lay low,
Little angels to see.
But that made us suspicious –
Wouldn’t you be?


So we snooped and we sleuthed
And uncovered their caper -
“The Ham-Stealing Plan”
Diagrammed on a paper!

“No silly cat’s gonna
Steal my roast beast,”
Exclaimed Mike. “Just watch,
I’ll ruin their feast!”So he countered their scheming
With mad plans all his own
And all I could do
Was inwardly groan!

Who’d win this contest
Of wits they were planning?
Would Mike, Roo or Sam -
Be last man or cat standing?

As Christmas day dawned
The four of us waited
For the ham to be served
With breaths that were bated.

But before the main course
Could even be plated
Their plans took a turn.
Some say it was fated...

What happened to stop them
So cold in their tracks?
Why, cat-nip and husb-nip
(in big canvas sacks)Was all that it took
To stop their foul warring.
And they rolled and purred
And drooled on the flooring.And as long as I kept
My fingers and toes
Away from a hubby and two cats
In nip’s throes -
My own Christmas day
Turned out merry and calm;
The ham moist and succulent,
The champagne, a balm.

When they “awoke”,
hostilities abated,
We all ate some ham
And went to bed sated.

And such peace we wish
To you and to yours:
An end to fighting;
An end to wars.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and Stacy and Rufus and Sam


UPDATE: and Trout and Dexter.